News Archive 2011

Dr Alessio Patalano taught a module on naval strategy at 56th Intermediate Staff Course at the Italian Naval Staff College (ISMM) in Venice from the 23-27 May 2011. During four days, mid-career officers from the Italian Navy and Coast Guard engaged in a critical analysis of the latest US Navy maritime strategy and tested its goals and ambitions against the Italian experience in the Mediterranean region. Classes were held in English as part of the service’s intention to offer its officers the opportunity to refine their presentational and analytical skills in English in light of their growing exposure to an international operational environment.

From 16-17 May  Dr Alessio Patalano participated to a 2-day conference organised by the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) and the French Ministry of Defence assessing Japan’s new defence posture and its implications for EU-Japan relations. At conference held in Paris, Dr Patalano presented on the subject of Japan’s future maritime strategy and capabilities, with particular reference to the country’s contribution to the Anti-Piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden and its recent construction of facilities in Djibouti.

The role of the UK in Afghanistan was the subject of a well-attended and lively War Studies lecture and discussion by Major General John Lorimer, chief of strategic communications in the Ministry of Defence on Tuesday 10 May. Dr John Gearson, Director of the Centre of Defence Studies. noted: "The Department was delighted to host the Chief of Defence Staff's official spokesman at this critical time for Britain's armed forces. As a former commander of British forces in Helmand, General Lorimer was able to speak with operational insight about a wide range of policy challenges facing the coalition. The stimulating question and answer session that followed his talk reflected the high level of interest and expertise amongst the War Studies audience and General Lorimer's willingness to engage with the academic community."

Dr Patalano organised the first workshop within the context of the newly created KISS-DTC, which took place at the Italian Naval War College (ISMM) in Venice. For three days, a group of twelve PhD students from SSPP, accompanied by Dr Patalano, Professor Lambert and Dr Dylan, attended a series of two lectures on the Korean War, engaged in a crisis-management simulation, visited the Venetian Arsenal and the Doge’s Palace.The workshop offered the students the opportunity to enhance their analytical and methodological skills, to debate subject matters relevant to their research theme, and tested them in interactions with military professionals in a unique environment.

Dr Alessio Patalano presents a paper on the maritime strategy underpinning Japan's 2010 defence review at the seminar 'Maritime East Asia throughout History' held at the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies on 11 May 2011.
 

The Peace In Between: Post-War Violence and Peacebuilding The book, edited by Professor Mats Berdal and Astri Suhrke, will be published by Routledge on the 12th July 2011 in its Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding series.
 

Professor Anatol Lieven held a launch of his new book, ‘Pakistan: A Hard Country’ (Penguin) on Tuesday 26th April at King’s College London, chaired by Professor Mats Berdal. Lieven’s book has received excellent reviews in The Evening Standard, Foreign Policy, The Economist and The Telegraph. The Telegraph described the book as ‘Lucid and well informed, dealing carefully with all Pakistan’s well-known problems…avoiding the hysteria and partial judgment that disfigure much contemporary writing on the subject.’
The launch was attended by representatives from the High Commission for Pakistan, the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Defence as well as Merlin, the UK's leading international health charity, and the Deputy News Editor for AL JAZEERA ENGLISH.
 

Learning from the Secret Past: Cases in British Intelligence History edited by Michael S. Goodman and Robert Dover is due to be published in November 2011 by Georgetown University Press. This book is a collection of ten carefully selected cases from post-World War II British intelligence history. Each case acommpanied by authentic documents, illuminates important lessons that today's intelligence officers and policymakers—in Britain and elsewhere—should heed. Read more.

Professor Andrew Lambert is featured in the upcoming PBS documentary, The War of 1812. In his interview, he focuses on Britain's perspective on the war, including the Royal Navy's need to press seamen into service. "By 1812," he explains in the film, "the Royal Navy had been at war for 19 years. They had over 120,000 men in service, but they are losing ten to fifteen thousand men a year. If they run out of sailors they'll lose the war at sea, and they'll lose the war against Napoleon."
 
You can find information on the film on pbs.org, a site that will offer resources for teachers, students and general viewers in the coming months.
 

Ayesha Siddiqi, PhD student in the Department of War Studies, has been awarded an AXA fellowship for her doctoral project examining the impact of climate and environment change on political conflicts in South Asia. Ayesha obtained an MA in Poverty and Development with a specialisation in Climate Change from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Sussex. She then spent two years working as a climate change consultant with one of the leading energy and climate change consulting companies in the UK. Read more.

Dr Wiiliam Philpott (pictured) author of the 2009 Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Prize winner; Bloody Victory: The Sacrifice on the Somme and the Making of the Twentieth Century -- The Battle, The Myth, The Legacy', and Peter Snow, author of To War with Wellington: From the Peninsula to Waterloo, debated the generals on Friday 8 April on the Today programme on Radio 4.
Dr Philpott joins a debate at an event at the National Army Museum on Saturday 9th April battling it out on the Museum’s website to discover who holds the title of Britain’s Greatest General. Other speakers include Peter Snow, Andrew Hopper, James Falkner, Robert Lyman
 

The Nordic Countries: From War to Cold War, 1944–51 edited by Dr Tony Insall and Professor Patrick Salmon, Chief Historian of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (pictured), had its launch on 1 April at Lancaster House. Her Majesty's Ambassador, Finland opened the event, followed by speakers from the University of Helsinki, Iceland, Oslo, Aarhus, Stockholm, Copenhagen and the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies. Please see the full programme attached.

The Dreadnought and the Edwardian Age edited by Andrew Lambert, Robert Blyth, National Maritime Museum, London, and Jan Ruger, University of London will be published on 11 April 2011 by Ashgate.

Dr David Fisher, part time Lecturer in the Department  and recent PhD Graduate launched his book '
Morality and War - Can War be Just in the Twenty-First Century?' at Chatham House on 22 March. Professor Sir Michael Howard, President Emeritus, IISS introduced the book. A debate followed; Professor Nigel Biggar, Regius Professor of Moral Theology at Oxford University argued against the motion and Dr David Fisher argued for the motion. The event was held in conjunction with The Council on Christian Approaches to Defence and Disarmament and Oxford University Press.
 

The Inaugural Lecture by Professor Theo Farrell: ‘The War for Helmand, 2006-2011’ given on the 2nd March is now online at http://podcast.ulcc.ac.uk/accounts/kings/KCL_War_Studies.xml

In December 2010 Professor Andrew Lambert joined a German documentary/academic expedition to Robinson Crusoe Island. The expedition focused on the relationship between the fictional character of Crusoe, the story of Scots sailor Alexander Selkirk, who was marooned on the island for four years in the early eighteenth century, and the development of British global strategy that culminated in the arrival of Commodore George Anson’s naval expedition in 1741. This expedition provided a unique research opportunity to spend three weeks working on an island that occupied a remarkable place in British naval history and imaginative literature between 1680 and 1748. Defoe’s novel and Lord Anson's Narrative were the best selling publications in their respective genres in this period, achieving striking international success, widely translated and extensively emulated they helped to place sea power and the global ocean at the heart of British culture, in an easily accessible and highly structured way. The relationship between the two texts, the island and the ocean will form the basis of a chapter in a book dealing with the British response to the sea across the ages. 
Read the full story. 

Pakistan: A Hard Country by Professor Anatol Lieven will be published on 28 April 2011 by Pearson. The book is based on a profound and sophisticated analysis of Pakistan’s history and its social, religious and political structures. Professor Lieven has interviewed hundreds of Pakistanis at every level of society, from leading politicians and soldiers to village mullahs and rickshaw drivers.
 
For details of the book launch on 26 April please go to www.kcl.ac.uk/warstudies/events
 

United Nations Interventionism, 1991-2004, ed. by Mats Berdal and Spyros Economides (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007) will be launched in Belgrade on 14 February 2011.

Robert Bieber, Visiting Research Fellow within the Department has been awarded an MBE for ‘services to the voluntary sector’ Robert is Deputy Chairman of Combat Stress, Honorary Secretary of the Royal London Society, a charity supporting serving prisoners, a trustee of the Thomas Heatherley School of Fine Art and has a long association with World ORT, an international vocational training charity. He recently completed his MA in War Studies at King's.

On Tuesday 7 December the Department of War Studies held its annual O Dywer-Russell Prize Giving and Achievement Awards ceremony. Simon completed his MA in the Department in 1983 and established himself as a defence and diplomatic journalist, first with Jane's Defence Weekly and with the Sunday Telegraph. The Telegraph helped set up the prize when he died and it has been given annually since the early 1990s. Each year prizes are awarded to students in recognition of  their outstanding achievement.